Have iTunes keywords been deprecated?

  • Now that I’m in the process re-establishing my podcast episodes; I decided it was a good time to refresh my feed and iTunes/Google Play settings.

    Everything looks good, except I noticed that the keywords tag is not showing up in the feed.

    I did a quick search and saw one question about keywords deprecation from 2014 but the answer was muddled suggesting it was unclear if iTunes actually uses the keywords but to include them anyway.

    I know Google stopped relying on the tags meta because of abuse some years ago; is it possible iTunes did the same? If so, what’s the point of having the option to put them there? or is there something wrong with my feed causing them not to show up?

    Because of the new issue with the player no longer appearing on each post, I’ve tried several options to have PowerPress correct the issue (fix; alternate fix; header fix, etc.) then cleared my browser cache to no avail. I tried switching to the default WordPress theme and disabling the few plugins I have running at the moment and none seem to correct these two issues. I’ll post a separate thread on the player after viewing all the forum questions on the same issue from over the years.

    I still use tags on my website (just not in the header) because I do believe they are aggregated by other search bots and it doesn’t hurt anything.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Thread Starter Keith a.k.a. K j A M

    (@kjam)

    Just answered my own question and solved EVERY other problem that I previously had with premium content; podcast channels; logging in and on down the line.

    After not being able to get the player to appear using every step known to mankind; I decided to take the nuclear option.

    I deactivated PowerPress; deleted any remaining associations with the plugin in my file manager and then nuked any references to PowerPress in my database.

    Cleared my cache; rebooted and reinstalled the plugin.

    It was like MAGIC!

    Many noticeable changes that apparently did not take hold when the BIG update was released in the summer. One of those being ‘keywords’ was removed.

    Case solved.

    geeknewscentral

    (@geeknewscentral)

    FYI Keywords have been depreciated by iTunes for a very long time. No one uses them anymore.

    Thread Starter Keith a.k.a. K j A M

    (@kjam)

    Thanks! see my post above.

    Plugin Support Shawn

    (@shawnogordo)

    Keith – are you still in need of any assistance with this or your other recent thread?

    Thread Starter Keith a.k.a. K j A M

    (@kjam)

    Thanks for chiming in Shawn,

    On this front; we’re cool. I think the whole problem was a messed up database as for the reason the changes never floated over in WordPress.

    Once I removed the plugin and folders and then the ‘powerpress’ references in the database then reinstalled; all the changes were showing up. That likely explains all the previous conflicting issues I’ve had.

    I’ve got two minor issues I’ve been trying to resolve.

    I setup the subscription page and all the links work great (iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, etc.) except the email page. For some reason it says the feed is invalid but it’s not. I had the site open most of yesterday while I was troubleshooting and iTunes and Google Play picked up that there were only three items in my feed since I haven’t put all the episodes back; so it’s fine. Not sure what’s going on there and since I can’t remove the email option…

    The other issue has to do with the alignment of the ‘download’ and ‘subscribe’ links being stacked on top of each other. In my setup (see below) that’s wasted space. I’ve been searching and trying out different lines of code to get them aligned horizontally on the same line but nothing is working. Not sure if that’s something you can help with or not.

    Alignment Image

    Other than that, everything is working great.

    If you have a chance.

    Plugin Support Shawn

    (@shawnogordo)

    The format of the links underneath the PowerPress player is designed to be:
    Download and related links first line under player
    Subscribe links second line under player

    So, the player is working as expected in this way. You may be able to alter this behavior thru CSS:
    https://create.blubrry.com/resources/powerpress/powerpress-and-your-theme/

    Please post a link to the Subscribe Page where you’re having trouble with the e-mail link so I can take a look at what’s going on.

    Thread Starter Keith a.k.a. K j A M

    (@kjam)

    Sorry for the late reply. The email wasn’t working because I was under a 503 while I work on my site. It’s good now.

    As for the links aligning on a single line horizontally; this is the best I came up from the instructions (and from what I’ve read elsewhere) but it still doesn’t work.

    .powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links powerpress_links_mp3
    { text-align: center; }

    Thanks!

    Plugin Author Angelo Mandato

    (@amandato)

    Hello @kjam,

    You may be able to do this with some advanced CSS styling. In future release of PowerPress we plan on allowing theme developers to create their own php file to style the player and links. This would be the solution for you in this case.

    Thanks,
    Angelo

    Thread Starter Keith a.k.a. K j A M

    (@kjam)

    I found a reasonable workaround; thanks!

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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